Wanniyala, Huber & Benjamin, 2005

Huber, Bernhard A. & Benjamin, Suresh P., 2005, The pholcid spiders from Sri Lanka: redescription of Pholcus ceylonicus and description of a new genus (Araneae: Pholcidae), Journal of Natural History 39 (37), pp. 3305-3319 : 3311

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930500145123

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039387D9-FFCA-FFF2-C17D-1F7AFDBB6D14

treatment provided by

Carolina

scientific name

Wanniyala
status

gen. nov.

Wanniyala View in CoL View at ENA new genus

Type species. Wanniyala agrabopath , new species.

Etymology

Named for the Wanniyala-Aetto or ‘‘forest people’’, an indigenous people of Sri Lanka, commonly known as Veddahs. They are the earliest inhabitants with any living descendants in Sri Lanka. They have lived in their forest environment as hunter-gatherers for the past 18,000 years, but are now endangered due to rapid development and destruction of the forest habitat.

Diagnosis

Small pholcids (body length about 2 mm) with six eyes, long legs, and globular abdomen, distinguished from other pholcines by the male genitalia [procursus with distinctive distal hinged sclerite ( Figure 7a, b, e, f View Figure 7 ), ventral transparent projection (t 1 in Figure 7 View Figure 7 ), prolateral proximal projection, and brush-like structure (t 3 in Figure 7 View Figure 7 ), bulb with tubular embolus and single sclerotized projection ( Figure 6a View Figure 6 )], and by the combination of modified clypeus ( Figure 6c View Figure 6 ), reduction of ALS spigots ( Figure 8b, c View Figure 8 ), and large number of short vertical hairs on male metatarsi.

Description

See descriptions of the two species below.

Distribution

Known only from Sri Lanka ( Figure 9 View Figure 9 ). The genus might also occur in India, but the pholcid fauna of India has barely been studied.

Composition and relationships

The genus includes two named species (newly described below) as well as one unnamed species from Inginiyagala (7 ° 139N, 81 ° 329E), Badulla District (one male), and from Rattota (7 ° 319N, 80 ° 419E), Matale District (one male) (3634– 35 in MZT). The latter species is not described because the female remains unknown. Wanniyala is clearly a representative of pholcines sensu Huber (2000). Within this subfamily, relationships remain largely obscure. This is mainly due to the fact that the large genus Pholcus and some potential relatives have never been revised.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Arachnida

Order

Araneae

Family

Pholcidae

Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF